Why do some people’s vision remain good after myopia surgery, while others’ vision deteriorates?

If you ask people who have undergone myopia surgery: How has your vision changed now compared to when you just had the surgery?

Most people would say that their eyesight has remained good. Some would even say that their eyesight is better than when they first had the surgery. However, a small number of people would say that their eyesight has deteriorated compared to that time.

Of course, we hope that we are the former rather than the latter. After the operation, good vision can be stable and long-lasting. What causes this difference? How can we keep good vision for a long time? We invite Dr. Feng Mei, attending physician, to answer your questions.

Differences in eye habits and eye environments

Myopia surgery does not put a protective lock on vision, but corrects myopia. Suppose your myopia is 300 degrees now, then a myopia surgery now can correct the existing 300 degrees of myopia. However, after the surgery, your careless eye use habits may cause your myopia to become 400 degrees. Excluding the 300 degrees that have been corrected, you will still have 100 degrees of myopia.

Therefore, the bad behavioral and environmental factors that may make your myopia worse before surgery will also have an impact after surgery. In order to maintain stable and long-lasting good vision after surgery, you should do the following:

1. Pay attention to the time of high-intensity eye use, so that the eyes can get enough rest and avoid excessive fatigue;

2. Pay attention to your eye posture and maintain a proper eye distance and angle. Those who like to lie down, lie on their backs, or lie sideways while playing with their phones should pay attention.

3. Pay attention to the eye environment. The light should be moderate in brightness and evenly distributed, and the light source should be stable and not flickering.

Individual differences in eye conditions

In addition to different eye habits and eye environments, individual differences in eye conditions will also have a certain impact. Myopia surgery is essentially correction rather than treatment. It will not aggravate but also cannot improve existing eye problems. Therefore, if the degree before the operation is not stable and shows a certain growth trend, it will be difficult to maintain stable vision after the operation. Or, there are some diseases in the eyes themselves, such as fundus disease, glaucoma, etc. Although the vision has been corrected, the influence of these eye diseases still exists, and myopia surgery may not achieve the desired effect. To avoid such situations, it is necessary to undergo a systematic, detailed and complete preoperative examination before surgery to ensure that your own eye conditions meet the requirements of myopia surgery.

At the Aier Eye Hospital Affiliated to Wuhan University (Aier Eye Hospital Group Hubei Headquarters), professional ophthalmologists and refracting doctors are responsible for the preoperative examination. There are about 18 examination items and it takes about two hours. Although it is a bit cumbersome, it can maximize the effect of the surgery and reduce the risk of surgery.